Erstwhile Tehri royals extract sesame seed oil for Lord Vishnu

Carrying on an age-old tradition, BJP MP from Tehri Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah today led married women of the erstwhile Tehri royal family to crush sesame seed oil into a special pitcher to be offered to Lord Vishnu at Badrinath when portals of the Himalayan shrine reopen ceremoniously on April 26 after a six-month winter break.
Before oil was extracted by the erstwhile royal family ladies into the pitcher called Gadu Ghara, they offered prayers to Lord Vishnu under the supervision of Rajpurohits Pandit Sampoornanand Joshi, Pandit Hetram Thapaliyal, Mahavir Prasad and Krishna Prasad Uniyal.
Tradition has it that the special pitcher full of sesame seed oil extracted by married women of the Tehri royal family is taken in a procession (Kalash yatra) to the high altitude temple and offered to Lord Vishnu when its doors are reopened at the start of the yatra season every year.

The Kalash yatra which began today will make several stopovers over the next seventeen days before reaching the famed Himalayan temple on April 26 when it will be placed inside the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine.
Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, a member of the erstwhile Tehri royal family is also BJP MP from Tehri.